Explaining the Ending Through Theatre...

I realize that there is a surplus of threads on this board regarding the end of the film and people's opinions on it, but bear with me. There really is a simple explanation for it, and it ties into a larger issue.

Broadcast News is a reinterpretation of Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac. Aaron is Cyrano - not conventionally attractive, highly intelligent, and in love with Jane but too afraid to actually make a move. Tom is Christian - good looking but completely vapid. And, of course, Jane is Roxanne - beautiful, intelligent, and completely taken in by Christian's looks.

There are two key scenes that make the connection obvious. The first is the central broadcast - Aaron "[says] it here, and it comes out there." He phones in things for Tom to say, while Hunter (in a control booth that serves as a balcony) looks on. The twist that makes the scene fresh is that she knows who the intelligent one is, and how lacking in intelligence Tom is. She knows that Aaron provided the insightful comments for the broadcast... and she still falls for Tom.

The second scene is the troublesome final scene - why is it there? Why continue the story all that time later? Because everything goes to hell in the main story, and we need to return several years later to see that the world has changed, and nobody ended up together. There's no cutesy romantic ending, and no profound revelation. And, again, there is a twist: the events leading to the film's time-jump have been completely different - Tom is alive, though revealed as a fraud; Aaron has already revealed his feelings and been denied; and Jane, rather than retiring to a nunnery to wait for death, has gone off to continue her career. There is no moment of clarity that reveals the simple tragic mistake that sent things all wrong - instead, life goes on. Nothing truly important happens; the ending just brings the characters back and proves to us that - in spite of the hopes we may have had without this ending - not only did the two possible romantic couples fail to reconcile in the time skipped, they also aren't going to do so now, or ever.

Broadcast News is the best kind of reimagining - it took the essential elements (in this case the relationship dynamics, as well as the basic attitudes towards, and questions of, intelligence, beauty, and honesty) from its source and took them to new places. As a result, it doesn't even resemble the source text except in a few key areas, and makes no explicit credit to it. I have to confess that I wonder if the makers were even conscious of their inspiration's source.

The biggest change they made is a brilliant commentary on society in general and the news media in particular: while Cyrano is loved by most and respected by all for his wit - even if he is denied romantic passion by his nose - Aaron is completely forgotten by the news industry because the industry doesn't value intelligence and doesn't respect those that aren't its brand of pretty... and he still doesn't get the girl, because she gets sucked into the same shallowness that she protests so staunchly.

There's more that can be found, but discussion is more interesting than lecture, so I'll leave it to those who are interested (if, indeed, they exist) to think about it and respond.

But, because I found it amusing, I'd like to mention one last thing: a substitute title which another user on these boards, who goes by the name Brian Scott Mednick, suggested when I mentioned some of this once before: Broadcast Nose